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FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 



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STATE OF NEW YORK. 



TRANSaiTTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MAY 15, 1873. 



ALBANY : 

THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
^ 1873. 



FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 



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STATE OF NEW YORK. 



TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MAY 15, 187 



ALBANY : 

THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
1873. 



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STATE OF NEW YORK. 

No. 102. 

IN SENATE, 

May 15, 1873. 



FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 



COMMISSIONERS OF STATE PARKS OF THE STATE OF 

NEW YORK. 

Hon. John C. Robinson, Lieutenant-Governor : 

Sir. — I herewith transmit the annual report of the Commis- 
sioners of State Parks of the State of New York, for the 
year 1872. 

VERPLANCK COLVIN, 

Secretary. 



REPORT. 



To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York : 

The Commissioners of State Parks of the State of New York, 
having been directed " to inquire into the expediency of providing 
for vesting in the State the title to the timbered regions lying within 
the counties of Lewis, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Herki- 
mer and Hamilton, and converting the same into a public park, 1 ' 
respectfully present the following 

REPOET. 

After a careful consideration of the projected forest park, with its 
practical bearing upon the interests of the people of the whole 
State, we are of opinion that the protection of a great portion of 
that forest from wanton destruction is absolutely and immediately 
required. 

We do not favor the creation of an expensive and exclusive park 
for mere purposes of recreation, but condemning such suggestions, 
recommend the simple preservation of the timber as a measure of 
political economy. 

The conclusion that the permanent preservation of a large por- 
tion of this forest is necessary, is based upon numerous considera- 
tions intimately connected with the great business interests of the 
State. Before proceeding to the discussion of the reasons which 
have brought us to this conclusion, a statement of facts in regard 
to the region is desirable. 

The ancient Cough-sa-gra-ge — the beaver hunting country of the 
Indian Six Nations — now known as the Adirondack wilderness, is 
essentially a great and almost primeval forest, covering the moun- 
tainous and semi-mountainous elevated region of Northern New 



Q First Annual Report of the 

York. The northern portion of the county of Hamilton is the 
approximate center of the wilderness, while the western portion of 
Essex county contains the most elevated lands and the highest moun- 
tains of the State. From Lake Champ] ain on the east, the Mohawk 
river on the south, the Black river on the west, and the St. Law- 
rence on the north, the land slopes upward towards the wilderness, 
whose marked peculiarity is the multitude of its lakes, of greater or 
less degree, and the vein-like ramification of its crystal brooks and 
rivers. The surfaces of the principal lakes throughout this upland 
are generally elevated from fifteen to sixteen hundred feet above the 
sea, whence some writers have been erroneously led to term the whole 
region a plateau or table land ; viewed from some lofty peak it is 
seen as a silent expanse of mountains, shrouded in unbroken woods, 
vast and quiet, and stretching to the apparent limits of the sky. 

Throughout this forest, game is still abundant ; the deer, bear and 
panther, with smaller animals, find shelter and support, and their 
presence gives to the magnificent scenery a strange, wild and 
romantic element, which has contributed to make its more accessible 
portions a choice summer pleasure ground for those of our people 
who travel, and who admire the natural splendors of their native 
land. 

I 

A few settlements only have as yet been formed in this wild terri- 
tory, although during the two hundred years past, numerous attempts 
have been made to recover and cultivate it, all of which have 
signally failed and recoiled with disaster upon the projectors. The 
cause of the failure of these enterprises is to be attributed to the 
deplorable ignorance that has existed in regard to the climate, soil 
and general capabilities of the region, which rendered unwarrantable 
the^expenditures made. Amid the mountains, granitic rocks, sparcely 
covered with vegetable mould, soon become bare and almost arid 
when deprived of the dense growth of trees and the net-work of 
roots and fibres which hold the soil together. Ages will have passed 
before the slow growth and death of minor plants upon the naked 
rocks will again afford sufficient soil to enable the second growth of 
timber to attain the size and value of that destroyed. 

... 
It mnst not, however, be supposed that all this region is a mass of 

rock. There are extensive tracts of gravelly and sandy soil, inter- 



Commissioners of State Par its. 7 

vales, and, near some of the lakes and rivers, alluvial lands, which are 
sometimes covered with a dense growth of wild grasses, often cut and 
cured by the lumbermen for the use of their oxen and horses in 
winter. Nevertheless, owing to the elevation and the coldness of 
the climate, there is no profitable farming carried on anywhere upon 
this upland ; for, seldom is there a year in which the temperature 
does not fall so low as to prevent the ripening of corn, while frost is 
not unfrequent even in summer. The potato, that hardy vegetable 
which may be grown even far toward the Arctic zone, in Labrador 
and British America, is here produced of fine quality, in some loca- 
tions. Oats, also, grow thriftily, especially upon new lands or soils 
that contain even a small percentage of lime, which mineral— so 
important to the agriculturist — is, unfortunately, not abundant. In 
fact, the agricultural products are absolutely nothing when compared 
with the products of the forests ; which are indeed the only surface 
wealth of the region ; and but for the need which the lumbermen 
and the summer tourist have for even the scanty amount of hay, oats 
and potatoes produced, and provisions brought in and kept for sale at 
these slender settlements, those settlements would soon cease to exist. 
As it is, many of the inhabitants are forced to eke out their subsistence 
by hunting and trapping ; and, latterly, since the value of the region 
as a summer resort has begun to be understood by our citizens and the 
citizens of other States, the class of guides — hardy and intelligent men 
— has increased, and thousands of dollars, which have hitherto been 
expended in travel in foreign lands, remain in or are brought into our 
State. 

The mineral wealth of the region is not inferior to that of its 
forests. It is practically limited to iron ; which exists in remarkable 
purity and enormous quantities ; but careful geological exploration 
has proved that the available deposits of ore are confined to the 
northern portion of this region, and that the ore-beds generally exist 
in the settled, cleared or accessible portions of the country. Great 
activity in iron manufacture is now exhibited near Lake Champlain, 
at Port Henry, Mineville, Elizabethtown, Black Brook and Danne- 
mora. The beds which here supply the furnaces are of magnetic or 
octohedral ore. Passing westward, along the northern boundary of 
the region, the character of the rock changes, and the specular, 
hematite ores of iron are encountered, and the ore-beds, as at the 



8 First Annual Report of the 

Iron mountain in the town of Oakham, St. Lawrence county, are 
often nn worked, and far in the depths of the woods. 

In addition to these masses of iron, there are beds of serpentine 
(so-called verde antique marble) steatite, or soapstone, and deposits 
of graphite. There are also superior grades of granite, or more 
properly gneiss, valuable for building purposes. Besides these pro- 
ducts there are no mines or minerals of great commercial importance. 

In the early days of iron manufacture in this region, all the iron 
was made with the aid of wood charcoal. When a pure ore was 
used, free from sulphurets and phosphides, the " charcoal iron " pro- 
duced was unsurpassed in quality, and commanded a high price. 
The result w T as that large sections in Essex county were entirely 
stripped of forest in order to supply the requisite charcoal. The 
mountains thus debosqued are to-day almost treeless, showing deso- 
late flanks of naked rock ; and some of the streams which once were 
trout brooks are now torrent beds, through which the water of each 
storm on the smooth sides of the mountains rushes swiftly off to 
leave them almost dry, instead of slowly percolating through a sponge 
of moss and tree roots, as a slow-running, cold and constant spring. 

To the introduction of coal from Pennsylvania by railroad may 
be partially attributed the present activity in the mining of iron near 
Port Henry, as in that immediate neighborhood the supply of wood 
was long since exhausted. It is not alone to coal, however, that this 
activity is owing ; it is more directly attributable to the improved 
means of transportation. Instead of dragging the fuel far from the 
coal fields, up steep grades to the mines, and then dragging the iron 
produced out again to market, a great portion of the ore is now 
transported directly to the cities, to the furnaces, to points where 
labor is cheap, and where repairs to machinery can be readily made. 
Instead of being overloaded with coal, the empty cars go easily up 
hill to the mines, to roll speedily down again laden with the heavj' 
ore. 

From this it becomes evident that, for the development of the iron 
mines of the region, railroads only are needed. Without railroads, 
neither the ores nor the products of the ore-beds of the interior can 
be brought to market. With railroads, and the easy access they afford 



Commissioners of State Parks. 9 

to the coal fields, wood, which must be cut and drawn by team over 
a rugged country, and would at length give out, becomes a fuel far 
too expensive to compete with coal. 

The advancement of iron manufacture, therefore, is simply a mat- 
ter of railroads; and the development of the mineral wealth of the 
region does not in any way conflict with the projected preservation 
of the forest. 

Yast portions of the wilderness are owned and controlled by the 
lumber interest, which, with that of the tanneries, is likely to. be 
most immediately and radically affected by the creation of a State 
forest park or timber preserve. These lands are generally purchased, 
held, and valued solely for the timber growing on them. As soon as 
the pine, spruce and hemlock trees have been taken off, the lands are 
often abandoned and revert to the State for unpaid taxes. The com- 
mon and wasteful method among lumbermen, therefore, is to cut all 
the available timber from a given section at once. This enables them 
to escape further taxes on that piece by abandoning and throwing 
the same back upon the State. The small trees, even under ten 
inches in diameter, are cut, and thus the natural process of replace- 
ment by a second growth of the valuable varieties of timber, becomes 
very slow, if not impossible. 

The mass of brushwood, the boughs and tops lopped from the 
trees in such quantities, dry and wither, and become in summer beds 
of tinder. The first spark from a hunter's fire kindles them, and 
now — spreading rapidly through the forest — commences one of those 
terrible conflagrations which have covered whole townships with a 
sea of flame, and, invading the settlements, have destroyed mills, 
dwellings and human lives. These fires reveal the slenderness 
of the soil, which — though sometimes several feet in depth — is often 
totally consumed, even down amid the crevices of the great boulders, 
which after the fire stand out red and burnt, like the uncovered 
bones of the world. The soil, apparently so rich and strong, is here 
without base, substance or solidity ; being only the rich peat-like 
earth, derived from the semi-decay of the fallen timber and sphag- 
nous (peat) mosses. In agriculture such a soil is fairly eaten up by 
the plants cultivated in it, and the boulders gradually appear above 
the surface, as when the soil is burnt. Great tracts in Franklin 



10 First Annual Report of the 

county have been swept by these fires, and the people of that section 
best know what a terrible infliction they are. It is interesting to 
notice that some of the people assert that they have detected a 
remarkable diminution in the usual flow of water in the streams of 
the burnt regions, and that sudden floods are more frequent now 
than heretofore. 

The tanneries, which are scattered along the margins pf the wil- 
derness, require great supplies of bark, and, therefore, aid in the 
rapid destruction of the forest ; though the hemlock is almost the 
only tree which is cut. So thorough in some sections has the 
work been made, that it is frightful to see the numberless crossed 
trunks of trees, lying one upon another, stripped of their bark and 
white as skeletons, left there to decay. 

From an early day there have been numerous projects for building 
railroads through this region, most of which have been abandoned, 
and none of which have been completed. 

At different times charters have been granted for such railroads, 
and, to some, special immunities and privileges have been given. 
Among these that now passing under the name of the " Adiron- 
dack Companies Railroad " is prominent. This company appears to 
have succeeded to the rights, privileges and real estate of the old 
Saratoga and Sackett's Harbor railroad, organized April 10th, 1848 
(afterwards known as the Lake Ontario and Hudson railroad, organ- 
ized April 6th, 1857), which became insolvent and passed into the 
hands of a receiver. Finally the present railroad, by certain amend- 
atory articles of association, under the general railroad act, and by 
other means, has come to assume the character of a great landed 
corporation. A large portion of the land which they possess was 
originally obtained from the State at the price of five cents an 
acre ; more than 250,000 acres being obtained by the Saratoga and 
Sackett's Harbor railroad in this way. The manner of their acqui- 
sition will, perhaps, be better understood by an examination of the 
following transcript from the report of the State Engineer and Sur- 
veyor (Assembly Document No. 60, Jan. 15th, 1857, page 202) : 

" Since the spirit of land speculation has subsided, to dispose of 
our public lands by wholesale was not to be expected, until by act 



Commissioners of State Parks. 11 

chapter 207, Laws of 1848, and subsequent acts chapter 72 of 1851, 
and chapter 122, Laws of 1855, the Commissioners of the Land 
Office are authorized and required to sell and convey to the Sackett's 
Harbor and Saratoga Kailroad Company 250,000 acres, belonging to 
the State in the counties of Hamilton and Herkimer, at the rate of 
five cents an acre, on the company complying with the conditions 
named in said acts. This claim has been satisfied in full, by lands 
granted in August, September and October, 1855, viz. : 

<rf"S£. Per acre - Amount. 

Hamilton and Essex counties 205,202 5 cents $10,260 11 

And on July 23, 1856 : 

Hamilton county 20,000 5 cents 1,000 00 

Hamilton and Warren counties .... 6,984 30 cents 2,095 20 

Warren county 15,974 30 cents 4,792 20 

Warren and Essex counties 7,042 30 cents 2,112 60 

Total 255,202 $20,260 11 

__ _ ■ 

TJB 000<8 oj 

"As will appear from the following extracts from the minutes of 
the Land Office, on the 9th July, 1856, the Sackett's Harbor and 
Saratoga Kailroad Company by their president, Mr. Waddell, made 
the following proposition :• 

" 'To the Commissioners of the Land Office : 

"' Gentlemen.— I propose, for the Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga 
railroad, to take lands now owned by the State in Hamilton and 
Herkimer counties, in accordance with our chartered rights, 20,000 
acres; the road having already received 205,000 acres, and claiming 
25,000 acres adversely claimed by Dart, Kirby, Loomis and others ; 
also propose to purchase 30,000 acres of lands belonging to the State, 
lying in other counties, and to pay for the same thirty cents per acre, 
under a stipulation from the road, to be filed, that in case our suit 
for the disputed lands is decided against the road, the number of 
acres now purchased shall go toward the amount due from the State, 
in which case the excess over five cents per acre to be refunded.' 

" Therefore, 

"JResolved, That the proposition herewith submitted by the Sack- 
ett's Harbor and Saratoga Eailroad Company be accepted, and that 
patents be issued, upon the payment of five cents per acre into the 



12 First Annual Report of the 

State treasury, for 20,000 acres of land lying in Hamilton and Her- 
kimer counties, and not claimed adversely by other parties; and that 
the proposition to purchase from the State 30,000 acres lying in 
Warren and Essex counties, additional, to pay therefor the sum of 
thirty cents per acre, be accepted, and that patents therefor issue 
upon the payment of thirty cents per acre, and the filing of a stipu- 
lation, on the part of said company, that in case the suit for lands on 
the part of the company, and defended by the State, shall be decided 
against said company, the amount of their said purchase at thirty 
cents per acre shall go toward the amount found due from the State, 
acre for acre in which case the excess over live cents per acre shall 
be refunded said company." 

The suit of the railroad company was decided against them, and 
they obtained these last — thirty-cent — lands in Warren and Essex 
counties also at five cents an acre. 

These transactions show that the wild lands of this region are, 
intrinsically, of very little value; for a single acre of farming land, 
valued at the moderate price of $100, is equal to 2,000 acres at five 
cents an acre. The working of the iron ores would in no way inter- 
fere with the preservation of the forest, for the mining companies 
would only require those lands in which the iron lies, and the right 
of way for their railroads. 

The area of the wilderness may be estimated approximately at 
one million seven hundred and thirty thousand (1,730,000) acres, or 
about two thousand seven hundred and three (2,703) square miles. 

These wild lands are distributed among the several counties in 
about the following proportion : 

County. Acres. 

Hamilton 750,000 

Herkimer 350,000 

Lewis . GO, 000 

St. Lawrence 40,000 

Franklin 300,000 

Essex 200,000 

Warren 30,000 

Total 1,730,000 



The county of Clinton, though containing much wild land, lies in 
a measure separated from the main portion of this- great forest, and 
has not, therefore, been included in these estimates. 



Commissioners of State Parks. 13 

About eight hundred and thirty-four thousand four hundred and 
eighty (834,480) acres, or one thousand three hundred and three 
(1,303) square miles, are upon the Hudson river side of the mountain 
divide which separates the head waters of that river from the streams 
flowing to the St. Lawrence. This would be the approximate area 
of the region which would be required for the purposes of the forest 
park, in case it should be determined that the preservation of the 
forests covering and protecting the sources of the Hudson is all that 
is necessary for that purpose. 

The following is a statement of all the lands now owned by the 
State and remaining unsold : 

Counr y General Fund. School Fund. 

Acres. Acres. 

Clinton 8,315 3,027 

Essex 2,824 9,954 

Franklin 1 Ig0 

Hamilton 7,397 3 , 558 

Herkimer 780 26 

St. Lawrence qq 

Warren 645 3,081 



Totals 19,962 19,892 

In all 39,854, or nearly 40,000 acres. 

Having now given an outline of the more important facts and 
statistics in regard to this region, we will proceed to a review of the 
considerations which have brought us to the conclusion that these 
great forests should be permanently preserved. 

Foremost among these considerations is the question of water sup- 
ply — of the maintenance of that quantity of water in the navigable 
rivers, in the streams that supply the canals and afford power to 
mills and manufactories, which from time immemorial has flowed in 
undiminished volume in their channels, and which only in these later 
days begins to slowly fail and disappear. This is, of course, a ques- 
tion of rain-fall, for it is to the precipitated moisture of the air that 
all streams or rivers owe their origin. There is nothing of greater 
importance to the agriculturist than rain at the proper season and in 
the proper quantity ; and science has demonstrated that the forests 
of a country are potent in the regulation of storms, the formation of 



14 First Annual Report of the 

clouds and the descent of rain. Anything which vitally affects the 
interests of the farmer and producer affects the whole State, and 
demands the earliest attention of the people's representatives. 

The State of New York is, perhaps, the most remarkable water- 
shed of the eastern half of North America. Northwardly its waters 
descending the St. Lawrence wash the coast of Labrador, while, far 
at the south, waters, which reached the earth from the self-same 
shower amid the Adirondack highlands, pour through the Hudson 
valley to the sea ; and, in the western portion of the State, the sour- 
ces of the Alleghany river rush, foaming, from their mountain springs 
to the Ohio, flowing thence through the Mississippi to the Gulf of 
Mexico. It is noteworthy that nearly every stream in this State, if 
traced to its source, will be found to originate in some lake or pond 
— of greater or less degree — from which, if in a forest region, it 
pours in an unfailing stream. South of New York there is no lake 
region till the brackish, dead-water bayous of Florida are reached ; 
and it is to this system of lakes, of natural reservoirs, bosomed in the 
cool primeval forests, that our State is indebted for that water supply 
which has created our canals, and that steady water power which is 
the wealth of so many manufactories. 

Without a steady, constant supply of water from these streams of 
the wilderness, our canals would be dry, and a great portion of the 
grain and other produce of the western part of the State would be 
unable to find cheap transportation to the markets of the Hudson 
river valley. In Erie, and the neighboring western counties, grain 
would decrease in value, and the farmers would be in the power of 
the great railroad monopolies. The merchants at Albany would also 
suffer, their summer trade would be ruined, and the hundred propel- 
lers which now make the Hudson foam before the fleets they tow, 
might be idly tied to the wharves and left there to decay. 

We believe that the great Adirondack forest has a powerful 
influence upon the general climatology of the State ; upon the rain- 
fall, winds and temperature, moderating storms and equalizing 
throughout the year the amount of moisture carried by the atmos- 
phere ; controlling, and in a measure subduing, the powerful north- 
erly winds, modifying their coldness and equalizing the temperature 
of the whole State. 



Commissioners of State Pares. 15 

It is now generally conceded that forests do not increase the 
amount of annual rain-fall. Their influence is to cause a distribu- 
tion of the rain in frequent showers at short intervals throughout the 
year, while their absence induces droughts, followed by sudden and 
tremendous storms which are the origin of disastrous floods. 

The record of the rain-gauge, year by year, shows only the amount 
of annual rain-fall. Let the total rain-fall of any year be supposed 
to be forty inches. If about every ninth day during the year there 
occur a shower — or forty annually — depositing only one inch of 
rain, the aggregate rain-fall of the year will be forty inches. 

If, on the other hand, but eight storms occur, each precipitating 
rain to the amount of five inches, the amount of annual rain-fall is 
as before, viz., forty inches. 

It thus becomes evident that the amount of annual rain-fall is not 
the question to be discussed, but "how, and in what manner does it 
fall 1" 

In the first instance, the rain coming in gentle showers refreshes 
and revives the earth, forwards agriculture and is a blessing. 

In the second instance, there are long periods during which rain 
does not fall ; the land is parched by the sun's fervent heat ; evapor- 
ation proceeds rapidly; the air, though clear, is saturated with 
invisible moisture, heavily charged with electricity, which finds the 
moist upper air a better conductor than the heated, dry, repellent 
surface of the earth. The drought continues ; nature is silently 
becoming exasperated, for there are now (in this case) no broad, cool 
forests, nor cold, wooded mountain sides to condense the vapor into 
cloud. The only chance for the relief of the atmosphere from its 
burden of moisture is the advent of some cold north wind. It 
comes at length, and the region of the air is convulsed. Black, 
gloomy clouds rapidly gather, and the suspended vaporous ocean 
overhead drops suddenly in one grand deluge, while the released 
electricity flies back to earth, cleaving the air with dreadful detona- 
tions. Down hill sides the furious turbid waters rush to the streams 
and rivers, cutting and carving ravines through grain fields or gar- 



16 First Annual Report of the 

dens, and then, with united swollen volume, sweeping before them 
and destroying bridges, dwellings, cattle and human beings. 

We have only to turn to France to see realized, as the actual result 
of forest slaughter, the very disasters which we have here described. 
There, though the government has been called upon to contribute 
large sums, and great contributions have been collected to aid the 
peasant farmers suddenly made destitute by such floods, the means 
seem to have been inadequate to relieve the suffering originated by 
the reckless wasting of the woods. 

All floods, however, are not to be attributed to the destruction of 
the forests; for in this, as in other things, there are exceptions to the 
rule. Nevertheless, upon the Hudson river, the destruction of the 
Adirondack forest would have a calamitous effect. The deep winter's 
snows, accumulating upon the disafforested uplands, would remain 
unmelted till the thousand and three hundred square miles of the 
present wilderness watershed might have a compact covering of snow 
equivalent to twelve inches of water. Spring, with its sunshine and 
showers, would suddenly release this latent ocean ; thirty-six billions, 
two hundred and forty-one millions, nine hundred and twenty thou- 
sand (36,241,920,000) heavy, cubic feet of water might rush at once 
down through the valleys to the sea. More than a quarter of a mas- 
sive cubic mile of water hurled furiously into the narrow valley of 
the Hudson, it would sweep before it fields of ice, to crush and 
sink the strongest vessels, and ruin the warehouses on our wharves. 
While the Adirondack forests remain, these deep snows will be pro. 
tected from the direct rays of the sun in spring, and will slowly and 
gradually melt away. The general temperature of the region will, 
consequently, be low ; the air will not be overcharged with moisture, 
and sudden heavy rains will be improbable. Such vapor as exists 
will form light drifting clouds, which, influenced by the forest, will 
act the part of one vast shielding canopy above the snow-bound earth. 

While, in our opinion, the chief and very important influence 
which forests exercise upon the rain-fall is their power to moderate 
storms and distribute the anuual quantity of rain more equally 
throughout the year, there are not wanting, amoug the greatest of 
scientific men, those who strenuously advocate the theory that the 
presence of great forests increases, and their absence dimishes, the 



Commissioners of State Parks. 17 



amount of annual rain-fall. Among those who have given the 
weight of their names and influence to this theory may be men- 
tioned Humboldt, Bonpland, De Sausure, Bousingault and others, 
who, in support of their opinions, have recorded facts so remakable 
that they cannot be passed without notice. 

De Sausure early came to the conclusion that the great diminution 
of water in some of the lakes of Switzerland was directly owing to 
the destruction of the forests covering the slopes of the Alps. 

The Spanish historiographer Oviedo, in his account of Venezuela, 
states that the city of Neuva Valencia was founded A. D. 1555, 
about one and a half miles from the Lake of Tacarigua. The lake is 
peculiar as having no outlet, though numerous streams empty into it. 
The climate of the surrounding country is favorable, and the soil pro- 
ductive. In A. D. 1800, Humboldt visited it, and learned that for 
thirty years its waters had been gradually decreasing, being then dis- 
tant three and one-third miles, the difference being proved by abso- 
lute measurement. The great philosopher recorded his conviction 
that the disappearance of the water was owing to the destruction 
of the vast forests in the neighborhood of the lake. After the period 
of Humboldt's visit, wars and dissentions paralyzed the industries of 
the country, and the tropical forests quickly grew again. In 1822, 
Tacarigua was visited by Bousingault, who found that the waters were 
rising, the people showing places which had been farms, but which 
were now covered by the lake. 

The astronomer Herschel, while in Africa, at the Cape of Good 
Hope, made careful meteorological experiments, and is said to have 
remarked with surprise that rain fell plenteously upon the 'forest, 
while the neighboring plains received no showers. 

More recently an unpretentious botanical publication of New 
York has made public new and important information ; the famous 
West Indian island of Santa Cruz is at the present moment, it seems, 
suffering from the former vandalism of its inhabitants; its eastern 
portion, which twenty-seven years since was rich, populous and of 
tropical luxuriance, now deprived of its forest, has become dry, arid 
and worthless. It is now found to be too late to retrieve the pre- 
vious error, for of a thousand trees, recently planted upon an estate 

[Senate, No. 102.] 2 



18 First Annual Report of the 

on this island, not one survived. The statements in regard to the 
Island of Curacoa are still more interesting : " In the year 1845, it 
was found to be an almost perfect desert, where, according to the tes- 
timony of the inhabitants, had once been a garden of fertility, aban- 
doned plantations, the recent ruins of beautiful villas and terraced 
gardens, and broad arid wastes without a blade of grass, showed how 
sudden and complete a destruction had fallen upon this unfortunate 
little island. The cause was the cutting down of the trees for export 
of their valuable timber ; the effect followed even more rapidly than 
at Santa Cruz, as the island lies five leagues further to the south, and 
the heat is more intense. The rains have almost entirely ceased, and 
fresh water is among the luxuries. Almost within sight of Curacoa is 
the coast of Spanish main, covered with the rankest vegetation, over 
which the burdened clouds shower down abundant blessings." 

In a recent paper of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, an author states his belief that forests have little or no 
effect upon the rain-fall ; but, at the same time, he records the fact 
that wherever forests have been cleared from the slopes of the Alps, 
destructive torrents have arisen, which disappeared when the trees 
were replanted. The author further relates the result of an experiment 
touching the influence of forests upon evaporation. Two open- 
mouthed jars of water were sunk so as to be nearly level with the 
surface of the soil, the one in an open field, the other amidst bushes. 
An equal quantity of water was placed in each jar, and after five days 
it was found that the jar in the field had lost by evaporation twice 
as much as that partially sheltered by the bushes. 

But it is not necessary to enter more fully upon this subject. One 
thing seems to be beyond the possibility of doubt, viz. : that the 
destruction of a forest covering the sources of a stream or river, by 
exposing the moist earth, the springs, rills and brooks to evaporation, 
diminishes the supply of water in those streams. It is a principle of 
natural law and equity that no man has a right to take from others, 
without compensation, any property or privilege. Again and again 
streams have been diverted from their natural beds by selfish, igno- 
rant men, who, as often, have been compelled by the stern mandate 
of law to restore and turn back the stolen water. The Indian 
savage, dependent for food upon the forest game, knew nothing of 



Commissioners of State Parks. 19 

such questions ; they were intangible and far beyond his comprehen- 
sion. We, in the semi-barbarism of the present, are putting aside 
or passing by as incomprehensible the self-same question in another 
form. The mass of mankind do not see or fully comprehend that 
the rivers flowing down hill past them are forever, in the clouds, 
flowing up hill overhead. Like a long, endless wire rope moving 
over pulleys in some deep mine, the water descends the stream only 
to return. Destroy a pulley, and the slack rope stops, catches, and, 
perhaps, is broken ; destroy the forests, and the rain first stops, then 
falls suddenly in flood torrents, which are succeeded by hot, blasting 
droughts. It is a continuous process, this evaporation, cloud, rain 
and river, yet it is only one of the many perpetual motions which 
the Creator retains as his prerogative, and which man can merely 
apply and modify. 

It has been shown that the forests preserve and protect the springs 
and streams among them. No man has, therefore, more right 
to cut away those forests absolutely, and thus divert, by evapora- 
tion, the water they protect, than he has to conduct it away, for 
his own selfish purposes, by canal or tube. Those below him 
upon the stream, the mill owner and operator, and the farmer and 
his cattle, are as much entitled to the water as the lumberman is to 
the timber. When we find individuals managing their property in 
a reckless and selfish manner, without regard to the vested rights of 
others, it becomes the duty of the State to interfere and provide a 
remedy. Here, by ruthless destruction of the forest, thoughtless 
men are depriving the country of a water supply which has belonged 
to it from time immemorial, and the public interest demands 
legislative protection. The canal interests of the State are very 
great, and are already suffering from this wrong. The water 
supply of the Champlain canal is entirely obtained from the streams 
of this wilderness, and the Erie canal, from Eome to Albany, 
is almost entirely supplied from the same watershed. In the Hud- 
son, near Albany and Troy, navigation, at midsummer, has become 
very difficult. The mill owners at Glen's Falls and at other points 
find that their water fails them ; and the farming lands throughout 
the State suffer from the storms and droughts already noticed. It is 
of no consequence that, through ignorance of the natural laws gov- 
erning rain and rivers, men have hitherto permitted, without protest, 



20 First Annual Report of the 

the injustice which they felt, but the cause of which they did not 
understand. The State must apply the remedy, and, to protect their 
interests, preserve the forest. 

The supply of timber which a State possesses within its own 
limits is one of the measures of its wealth. The lumber trade of 
New York was among its earliest sources of income, and our people 
will have cause ever to regret the hour when that trade shall cease to 
exist. At first sight it may appear that the absorption of all this 
vast forest (practically the only lumber region now remaining in the 
State) into a State park would amount to the immediate annihilation 
of that trade. The idea of such an unproductive and useless park 
we utterly and entirely repudiate. The park should be eminently a 
timber preserve and reserve. The carefully protected ^forests of 
Europe afford their States large annual incomes ; the timber is cut 
under the direction of officers charged with the care of the forests, 
who mark the old and mature trees for cutting, and see that as little 
injury as possible is done to the growing timber. In England, and 
more especially in Ireland, forest culture has received much atten- 
tion ; for as early as the 17th century the cultivation of forest trees 
for industrial purposes was commenced. In Ireland, barren hill- 
sides and hitherto desolate regions have, by arboriculture, become 
rich with forests, and the native trees are now in some sections less 
abundant than the foreign varieties, the very scenery being changed. 
In France and Germany there are natural forests which are preserved 
and properly cared for, affording supplies of valuable timber for 
house and ship building. Should an Adirondack park be created, 
careful consideration should be given to the utilization of the forest. 

If the present wasteful use of lumber be continued, even the 
forests of Canada and the West will fail ; and even now our supply 
from those quarters may be any year destroyed by another series of 
those forest conflagrations which have, in Wisconsin and Michigan, 
already been so extensive and disastrous. Unless we desire to be 
reduced to the use of inferior timber — of balsam-fir and other trees 
which we now regard as worthless — we must preserve our forests. 

In addition to these weighty considerations of political economy, 
there are social and moral reasons which render the preservation of 



C03IMISSI0NERS OF STATE PARKS. 21 

the forest advisable. Its effect upon the general liealthfulness of the 
State is great. The philosopher, Bojde, long since remarked that in 
the "Outch East Indian island of Ternate, long celebrated for its 
beauty and liealthfulness, the clove trees grew in such plenty as to 
render their product almost valueless. To raise the price of the 
commodity, most of the spice forest was destroyed. Immediately 
the island — previously cool, healthy and pleasant — became hot, dry 
and sickly, and unfit for human residence. It is well known that 
the general clearing away of the forests in this country has had a 
tendency to raise the temperature, which in summer reaches such a 
hight as to be barely endurable. In our cities, these great heats — 
acting upon garbage in those miserable quarters which are but cess- 
pools and sinks— give rise to the probable source of cholera and 
other epidemics, the foul miasmatic effluvia which could not exist in 
the presence of living vegetation. Anxious to escape, our citizens 
hasten either to the country, the sea-shore or the mountains, while 
those whose avocations will not permit their absence, find a 
purer air in the semi-rural suburbs, or in those elegant parks which 
modern culture and civilization have come to consider indispensable 
in any city. 

The accessible portions of the Adirondack wilderness have already 
become favorite resorts for those seeking health or pleasure. The 
field sports of the wilderness are remarkably exhilarating, and 
strengthen and revive the human frame. The boating, tramping, 
hunting and fishing expeditions afford that physical training which 
modern Americans — of the Eastern States — stand sadly in need of, 
and which we must hope will, with the fashionable young men of 
the period, yet replace the vicious, enervating, debasing pleasures of 
the cities. It is to their eager pursuit of field sports that metropoli- 
tan Englishmen owe their superiority in physical power, with that 
skillful use of fire-arms, independence, fearlessness, cool presence of 
mind, and ability which they possess to bear the fatigues of war 
and exigencies of military service. 

To foster and promote these natural and healthful exer- 
cises among the young men of the State, it is necessary in some 
measure to preserve the game, and the forest which affords it 
shelter. 



22 First Annual Report of the 

In seasons of cholera the wilderness has been thronged with peo- 
ple, who have thus been preserved from that disease, and this is but 
one of the many additional considerations which might be urged as 
reasons for the preservation of the forest. 

The area of the proposed park will not appear so immense when 
we compare it with that of the United States park at the head waters 
of the Yellowstone river, in the Rocky Mountains. When we 
remember, also, that that great reservation was made by the Govern- 
ment, not from motives of political economy or public necessity, but 
simply in order to preserve it as a pleasure ground for the people, 
then the claims of the Adirondack Park to consideration become 
apparent. 

The little settlements already existing in the region are not incom- 
patible with the project, but are, on the contrary, indispensable to 
the completeness of the park. They would keep provisions, as now, 
for tourists and lumbermen; and the people of these settlements, 
many of whom now earn a livelihood as guides, having a direct 
interest in the welfare of the park, would voluntarily protect the 
game and timber from unlawful destruction. 

A summer residence in this wilderness has been found so favorable 
to health, and has become so popular, that people come even from 
St. Louis and Chicago, and more distant points south and west, and 
remain throughout the season. The mass of travel, however, comes 
from Philadelphia, Boston and New York city. Should these 
wild lands become the property of the State, it is thought that 
leases of woodland points in lakes, and of islands near certain 
favorite localities, to citizens desirous of erecting rustic summer 
villas or hunting lodges, would form a very considerable source of 
income, and more than repay any expenditures which would be 
necessary. 

There is no need, however, for any expenditures, save, possibly, in 
the improvement of a few of the principal roads leading to the set- 
tlements. The forest is in itself a natural park, and it would be 
improper to think of inclosing and fencing it, for it should be a com- 
mon unto the people of the State. 



Commissioners of State Parks. 23 

The question before your commission is one of great importance 
to the State, and requires their further consideration. For the present 
we deem it advisable, and recommend, that the wild lands now owned 
and held by the State be retained until this question is decided. 
Albany, May 14, 1873. 

HORATIO SEYMOUR, 
PATRICK II. AGAN, 
WILLIAM B. TAYLOR, 
GEORGE RAYNOR, 
WILLIAM A. WHEELER, 
VERPLANCK COLVIN, 
FRANKLIN B. HOUGH, 

Commissioners. 



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